Cover news reporter Zhang Jie Intern Jiang Ruiyao
Chen Shizeng, born in 1876, is a famous artist and art educator in modern China. His grandfather was Chen Baozhen, the governor of Hunan, and his father was the famous poet Chen Sanli. Chen Shi once traveled to Japan in 1902 to study, and returned to China in 1909 as the director of Education in Jiangxi. After that, he served as a professor of fine arts in Changsha First Normal School, Women's Higher Normal School, Beijing Higher Normal School, and Beijing Art College. Chen Shi has studied Chinese and Western, and is particularly good at the field of fine arts. His lecture notes on the history of Chinese painting were compiled and published into a book, A Brief History of Chinese Painting, which had a far-reaching impact.
2022 marks the 100th anniversary of Master Chen's death. In March, the China Pictorial Publishing House specially launched the full-volume collection edition of Chen Shizeng's masterpiece "A Brief History of Chinese Painting".
The development of Chinese painting presents distinct phased characteristics, so the author divides the book into three periods: ancient history, medieval history, and modern history, and each period is narrated in turn according to the order of dynastic changes, which is for the "jing", that is, vertical. Within each dynasty, the beginning is a summary of the period, and then the chapters are divided according to the school, painter, and painting categories, which is for "latitude", that is, horizontal. This narrative method is convenient for readers to grasp the framework of the development of Chinese painting from a macro perspective, and it is also possible to select chapters according to their own interests to carry out targeted reading.
Readers who love Chinese painting but have different levels of painting professional level can find a position that suits their interests from this book. Professionals can see from this that the genres of Chinese painting, the inheritance and development of painters and works, the techniques of painting, the style of painting, the imagery and artistic conception of painting are the embodiment of the professional value of this book. Non-professional ordinary readers can see the wonderful process of the development of Chinese painting, feel the artistic beauty of painting works, and can understand the basic common sense of painting, and use this book as an introductory tool for learning Chinese painting, which is the embodiment of the universal value of this book.
Before the publication of this work, most of the works on the study of Chinese painting were mainly to comment on painters and painting techniques, and it was still blank in systematically summarizing painting theory. Chen Shi once took a unique approach, from the painting genre, painters, works, techniques and painting theory and other angles, made a systematic and perfect summary and combing of the development of Chinese painting, which made people feel refreshed by the view of the source of Chinese painting, this work can be described as the pioneering work of systematic research on the history of Chinese painting, with epoch-making influence.
Corresponding to the painting schools, painters and works mentioned in the text, the book is accompanied by 300 ancient paintings in the collection, which plays a role in annotating the article and building a sense of picture, and also enables the reader to more intuitively and deeply understand the text content, and then feel the majestic and continuous beauty of Chinese painting.